The Auditors of Public Accounts Wednesday morning issued a review of the state Division of Special Revenue, which controls lottery games, bingo and OTB operations. They found at least two separate instances of division employees “abusing” state time and vehicles that were “not promptly” reported to state officials as required by law. They also found “numerous instances of personal long distance calls” made by staff. “We found that two employees seemed to have a significant number of such calls to out-of-state locations,” said the report.
Also among the 16 recommendations, auditors found that more than two years after a deadline to establ;ished regulations on bingo games for partent teacher organizations, the division has still failed to comply. It is almost three years past a deadline to draw up regs for so-called tuition raffles.
The division, in response, said it has submitted regulations to the governor’s office for approval. On the apparent abuses of state vehicles, the agency said it “understands the issue and we will comply.” On the long-distance phone abuses paid by you, state taxpayers, the agency said its senior managers will meet “and discuss” policies and publish a new one “which will better reflect what is acceptable and what would be considered an abuse. Frequent and lengthy personal phone calls will be considered an abuse and not allowed.”
Doesn’t that just make you feel assured that changes are coming to the Division of Special Revenue?